Sunday, October 12, 2014

By the very outspoken Gavin McInnes. There's another of his cutting essays here (Scroll down). He's also got a heap of hilarious videos on YouTube. My Favorite: http://youtu.be/loewtvw8i4Q

The trouble with reporting on free speech is it’s not interesting if it’s about the right to have a gay pride parade or criticize George W Bush. Only about 7 people have a problem with those things. The only time there’s nuance is when it’s about something that makes people uncomfortable. Say, pedophiles or the “God Hates Fags” guy or worse, “racial realists.”

James Kirchick over at The Daily Beast wanted to say that preventing “obscure racist” Richard Spencer from meeting like-minded people is wrong no matter how vile their beliefs. Only, even indicating that racists are included in the right to free speech is a career killer so Kirchick used the following 15 techniques for writing about this subject.

1- Put “Gets to play” in the title so it’s clear you think of the racist dude as a child.

“American Racist Richard Spencer Gets to Play the Martyr in Hungary”

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2- In the subhead call them “obscure” so it’s clear you think they’re irrelevant.

“By banning a conference of relatively obscure racists and jailing and deporting their leader, Budapest has managed to amplify their odious views, not discredit them.”-

3- Make your hypothesis interrogative so you can say, “I was only asking a question” if you’re forced to apologize.

“Should a country welcome a gathering of American “racial realists,” European far-right activists, Russia’s top nationalist ideologue, and other self-proclaimed “Identitarians” in its capital?”-

4- Add square brackets and “stuff” to really drive home how silly you think these guys are.

“over the first weekend of October to “share ideas,” “make new [white] friends,” and do other fun white people stuff.”-

5- Talk about how white their neighborhoods are like you’re from Harlem.

“advocates ‘a White Ethno-State on the American continent.’ Whitefish, Montana, where NPI is based, is apparently not sufficient.”

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6- Reiterate how much you hate these guys by calling them “rock bottom.”

“You know you’ve hit rock bottom as a professional white nationalist when the guy who made international headlines for standing up in parliament to demand a list of Jews who pose ‘national security risks’ tries to distance himself from you for being too racist.”

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7- Bring back in that “obscure” from the title and throw in an “odious.”

“Budapest has turned a relatively obscure group of racists into global martyrs for free speech, and in so doing has amplified their odious views, not discredited them.”

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8- Preface any “intellectual” with “pseudo.”

“not heroic liberal democrats exchanging dangerous thoughts on the latest Václav Havel play but a bunch of racist pseudo-intellectuals.”

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9- Just to be safe, throw in a “stupid” too.

and treated like a common criminal, though his alleged crime was harboring stupid and bigoted thoughts.

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10- Repeat it.

“It’s not a crime in Hungary to hold stupid and bigoted thoughts.”

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11- Make the bad guys not know they are stealing from Jewish intellectuals.

“…this gave the process a certain ‘Kafka-esque quality.),’ Spencer wrote me. Franz Kafka lived in Czechoslovakia and wrote in German, facts one would assume to be pertinent to a self-described ‘Identitarian.’ Kafka was also Jewish.”

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12- In case everyone’s retarded, just blatantly repeat that you don’t actually like the guy.

“I disagree with Spencer on pretty much everything imaginable, but I concur on this.”

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13- Then call him a creep.

“I feel at seeing a white nationalist creep experience satisfaction by posing as a martyr to the cause of free speech.”

Luke, when liberal leaning people make a comment here on this blog, they are usually referred to a liberal scum, libturds, brain dead, insane, etc. These names usually go unchallenged by the people here, as this is a conservative leaning blog. When a liberal does the same thing on this blog, they are crucified metaphorically.

So, I presume that you would challenge both liberal and conservative name calling and ridicule equally. Correct?

So, I challenge every commenter, liberal, conservate and in between, to refrain from this behavior. Anybody care to accept this challenge?

Dave Bowman...........Oh please! Every heard of Saul Alinsky, who literally wrote the book on trashing, and trash talking, your opponent. It's really past time for conservatives to get down in the mud and take on the libs using their own methods. When your fellow travelers take the civility pledge I'll consider engaging in polite discourse. Suggest you immediately contact Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Wendy Davis, et al to get the civility ball rolling.

Is the American national anthem politically incorrect? From the 4th verse:Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

Mohammad

The truth can be offensive to some but it must be said

"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."

Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

The double standard: Atheists can put up signs and billboards saying that Christianity is wrong and that is hunky dory. But if a Christian says that homosexuality is wrong, that is attacked as "hate speech"

One for the militant atheists to consider: "...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" -- Thomas Jefferson

"I think no subject should be off-limits, and I regard the laws in many Continental countries criminalizing Holocaust denial as philosophically repugnant and practically useless – in that they confirm to Jew-haters that the Jews control everything (otherwise why aren’t we allowed to talk about it?)" -- Mark Steyn

Voltaire's most famous saying was actually a summary of Voltaire's thinking by one of his biographers rather than something Voltaire said himself. Nonetheless it is a wholly admirable sentiment: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I am of a similar mind.

The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.

Why conservatives should not respond to Leftist abuse: "Never wrestle with a pig, because you'll both just get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

The KKK were members of the DEMOCRATIC party. Google "Klanbake" if you doubt it

A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.

Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.

Categorization is a basic human survival skill so racism as the Left define it (i.e. any awareness of race) is in fact neither right nor wrong. It is simply human

Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?

If any mention of racial differences is racist then all Leftists are racist too -- as "affirmative action" is an explicit reference to racial differences

Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862

Gimlet-eyed Leftist haters sometimes pounce on the word "white" as racist. Will the time come when we have to refer to the White House as the "Full spectrum of light" House?

The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand

Mostly, a gaffe is just truth slipping out

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."

"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica

Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech

The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

I despair of the ADL. Jews have enough problems already and yet in the ADL one has a prominent Jewish organization that does its best to make itself offensive to Christians. Their Leftism is more important to them than the welfare of Jewry -- which is the exact opposite of what they ostensibly stand for! Jewish cleverness seems to vanish when politics are involved. Fortunately, Christians are true to their saviour and have loving hearts. Jewish dissatisfaction with the myopia of the ADL is outlined here. Note that Foxy was too grand to reply to it.

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here